For council term limits

Voters in the city of Toledo have the opportunity to clarify, once and for all, the issue of term limits for City Council.

We recommend a vote FOR ISSUE 19 on the Nov. 7 ballot, a city charter amendment that would set a flat limit of 12 consecutive years for both at-large and district council members.

To serve longer, a member with 12 years' service would have to sit out at least one year.

The charter currently specifies a maximum of three four-year terms. But the city law director issued a misguided opinion in 2005 that allowed Bob McCloskey and Betty Shultz to breach that limit as at-large members because they previously had been elected to district seats.

That was before McCloskey resigned in May, shortly before he pleaded guilty to bribery involving a council vote and was sentenced to federal prison. Ms. Shultz now is in the midst of her fourth term.

We believe that three four-year terms and out is what Toledoans had in mind when they approved the charter provision in 1992, and this straightforward amendment will clear up any doubt.